Not long after arriving in Haiti in June, Cladel of Jeremiah Ministries told me that he was worried about his neighbor and his neighbor’s house and would like for our team to see them. It has been our experience that this is how many ideas are born and projects are started in Haiti. And so, we met Ferdinand.
Ferdinand’s house was definitely in need of repair to put it mildly. It is a 12 year old house built of mud and sticks. It’s approximately 14′ x 24′ and has 3 rooms. As you can see, it is leaning quite a bit. Ferdinand has a wife and 7 children living within these leaning walls, that leak terribly when it rains. He has been collecting cinder block as funds allow, planning to rebuild the walls at some point in the future.
But what tugged at my heart the most in this situation was not the house. It was Ferdinand. He had a ready smile and immediately reached for our hands and introduced himself as “a child of God;” not as Ferdinand, a builder, a father, a husband, etc. What a reminder that our identity is not in what we do or what we have, but to whom we belong!
We ended up meeting with Ferdinand 2 other times. We shared a New Testament, rice, beans, oil, and some toiletries. We spoke with a Haitian friend who has worked with us on other projects in years past. The estimated cost of building a new house is $8000; this includes wages for Haitian workers, plus the sweat equity that Ferdinand will provide.
Donations to Provision of Grace Outreach are tax-deductible. Please designate for “Ferdinand’s Home.”
“Beloved, now we are children of God…” ~ 1 John 3:2a